Remember when President Barack Obama released his birth certificate to get Donald Trump, Tea Party "patriots," and conspiracy theorists to cool it with the claims that he's not an American citizen?

Well, that apparently didn't satisfy some of the kookier far-right-wingers, who still seem to think that Obama is the real life Manchurian Candidate -- and they've enlisted the help of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to further their insanity.

According to WorldNetDaily whackjob Jerome Corsi, Arpaio has agreed to investigate Obama's eligibility by probing the president's "fake birth certificate" before he's allowed on the ballot in Maricopa County.

This comes just months after Governor Jan Brewer demonstrated a rare burst of common sense when she vetoed Arizona's humiliating "Birther Bill," which could have required candidates to provide a description of their penis to get on the ballot. That requirement, even by Jan's standards, was crazy.

Corsi and members of Arizona's Tea Party met with the sheriff yesterday to express their concerns that Obama would be using a fake birth certificate to qualify for the ballot. The sheriff, apparently, agreed to help out.

We sent Arpaio flack Lisa Allen an email asking if this was actually happening. Well, we sent her the link to Corsi's article outlining the plan with the subject line "this can't be real, can it?"

She didn't get back to us. Neither did members of Arizona's Tea Party.

Allen's silence seems to suggest one thing: Joe Arpaio really plans to use the resources of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to investigate a continually debunked conspiracy theory -- which, if you look at the sheriff's history when it comes to his use of MCSO resources, is about par for the course.